Holiday Shopping

Well, my favorite time of year is upon me and I couldn’t be happier about it.
I love the anticipation, the fun, the way everything seems a little more doable this time of year.

And it helped that yesterday there were the most wonderful little snowflakes coming down.
Literally exploding into little snow bombs as they hit the road. I’d never seen snow do that. Either it leaves a wet spot upon hitting something or I don’t notice it at all.

Anyway, have you all made your Christmas lists? How hard are you to buy for?

I’m easy. I like anything as long as there’s some thought behind it. Though, I can hear my friends choking on their next breath as they read that.

For they know I have a gift list at Henne’s Jeweler’s in Shady Side. And while that’s true. The only stuff on it is way unaffordable.

All the affordable stuff has been bought for me already. Smile. Smile. Smile.

And that’s fine. I like the fact I can actually wear the jewelry I own all the time. If I have too much, it’ll all just sit there collecting dust waiting for my daughter’s first date or her prom. What fun is that?

I really don’t want anything this year.

My friend Nikki considers cars a gift. She became a Vice Principal this year, got a monsterous raise and her husband bought her a car as a gift.

“That is not a gift,” I exclaim.

“To me it is,” she says knowing I know she is on her 12th car since I met her thirteen years ago.

Something you need to have to run your daily affairs is not a gift. She could have the diamond necklace I can’t afford. The stud earrings…

But that’s the point. A gift is in the eye of the beholder. I love buying gifts for people. Nothing is more fun than seeing someone smile at something I picked for them. Nothing is worse than them hating my gifts. I take it as a personal failure when I get a lukewarm or negaive response to a gift.

And I’ve given crappy gifts. Not because I didn’t think hard about what to buy, but because it just wasn’t a good gift. Once I reupholstered an ottoman for my husband because we didn’t have a recliner to help him unwind from his long days.

Not only did my crafting wake him up late one night, he hated it. Everything about it. Sometimes you’re better off going with the registry, the list. Like mine.

Some men I know have actually gone into cardiac arrest when made aware I have a list at a store of things I want. But it works for Bill and I. He doesn’t have to think too hard and I get what I want. We’re both happy.

And as Nikki, knows, who the hell cares what anyone else thinks of your gift. It’s yours.